SXSW: All-for-Nots Perform, Launch Web Show

AUSTIN, Texas — Five aspiring musicians are recruited to form a band and tour the United States. Sounds innocuous enough, if not a little Spice Girls-y. The catch? They’ll be portraying a fake band in a new web-based show dubbed the All-for-Nots. It may sound like the plot from ’60s TV show The Monkees, but here the band is a made up of ultrahip indie rockers and the show will air exclusively online.

Equal parts The Office and Spinal Tap-style mockumentary, the All-for-Nots is a comedy following a motley crew of musicians on an ill-fated and tumultuous cross-country tour. It’s produced by Dinosaur Diorama, the team behind popular web show The ‘Burg, about a group of twenty-somethings living in Brooklyn. The show also boasts backing from former Disney honcho turned new media mogul Michael Eisner (pictured below in red hat).

"It’s confusing since we’re a real band playing a fake one," said Kevin Johnston, who plays lead guitarist/singer Johnny Hamilton at the show’s South by Southwest launch party Tuesday. "But it’s exciting to do the show as an internet rock band."

The show will be released in two dozen 10-minute webisodes that will post online over the next few months. Each episode will be supplemented by shorter clips of band interviews, raw video footage, outtakes and live performances from the band’s actual shows around the country.

When asked if he’d like to see the show eventually attempt a cross-over leap to television, a la quarterlife, Johnston said the band would love to get a record contract, but that it would be wise to see what happens with the show first. "Either way, hopefully we’ll be playing music together forever," he said.